After the Red Rain: A Paint My Goodbye Red 1st Anniversary Piece
by Shinryuu Uroborus
Summary: Hello everyone, I'm back. I may not be updating PMGR again, but I can't miss PMGR's anniversary. It's a milestone, after all. It's May 31 over here, so here's a little piece, set right after PMGR's last epilogue, in Axl's perspective as usual. Enjoy! [ONESHOT]


**AFTER THE RED RAIN  
A PMGR 1** **st** **Anniversary Celebration Piece**

"Hi, Axl.  
I suppose you're organising your stuff right now, but here's the full mission report for your view.  
The mission was a success, since 100% of the laboratory is intact and accessible. Solid's successfully arranged a handover of Sigma/Albert Wily's laboratory and the rest of the Crimson Palace to Prof. Rosa Wily, and the permits will be ready within a week. Since it'll basically be Prof. Wily's and Prof. White Light's research site, everyone will have to get their permission to access the site, as per the handover agreement you signed earlier.

It's a simple first mission of work, I suppose, but I hope all's well.

Have a nice day,  
Alia"

I huffed out as I finished reading the e-mail, and put my mobile phone down on my new, empty desk. I have a suitcase full of things that I'm putting here. They're mostly clothes, daily life things such as drink bottles and cutlery, the gun repair kit, and some mementos.

I didn't expect to be able to leave the room so easily. I expected a bit more hard feelings, because it had been my home for 10 years. But I suppose, home is only home when your heart is in it. But the reason why the Crimson Palace was my home was because my heart is in the family inside Red Alert. Now that they're off to a better place now, my heart's no longer in that place, or my room in that place.

I suppose my heart was always here, in the Hunters, since the beginning. Well, maybe not all of it at first, but half of it.  
I was torn over between taking care of the family I grew up with, and doing what I think is right, like half of my heart is in Red Alert, and the other half of my heart is here.

"You…you've jumped over the Dragon's Gate. You're not a fish anymore. You're a dragon."  
"See this? The carp that just jumped over, it soared alone, while its friends continued to try to jump across the Dragon's Gate. Obviously, it doesn't belong with its carp friends anymore. It has to live among the dragons, live like the dragons."  
"I guess I'll stay a fish my whole life, but I don't mind. I like being free."

Red's words echoed in my mind, and I let the tears fall down again, being alone, and in private. Until now, I still can't believe that it's been about a week since then. I can't even believe it happened. But it did.

But Red's right. Every single of his words are right. I had never wanted to be an assassin that makes a living out of murdering innocent people. I always wanted to be a maverick hunter who lives to protect innocent people instead. I don't care, even if I am under the government.

While Red…he was always content, happy and fulfilled being in Red Alert. He is free, not regulated by the government, which had betrayed reploids in a very painful way, and he witnessed it himself. Looking back on it, he had a bitter perception of society, particularly humans. To him, they "profit from the suffering and slavery of reploidkind". I suppose that's what comes out of being there to witness and suffer from the Repliforce crisis, and I'll probably never truly understand his feelings. Zero, the legendary maverick hunter, even voiced similar sentiments…

"Red was a mercenary working under Repliforce when they were fighting the Hunters. I think I understand why he sided with them. Like, he was a mercenary, but he actually fought for free. Anteator told me that. And then, you…everything you told me about becoming a Hunter makes sense now." I had stated, in a past conversation with Zero in one of the balconies.  
"I know, right?" Zero had chuckled. "I don't think I've seen Red before, but either way, yeah. You're fighting for a racist society that sees you as not much more than just tools." he explained himself, sighing at the end. "Pay's good, colleagues are good. It's just that my heart's not in it. But your heart's in it, right?"

Indeed, my heart is in protecting the society I have wronged for so long. It doesn't matter what happens to me. I had taken many lives, and I am ready to give my life to society in return.

"You intend to offer yourself to society? You do know that there's no guarantee that it'll give back, don't you?" X had questioned me on this matter before we left to retire Sigma.

And back then, I said yes. And to this moment, the answer is still a yes to me. It doesn't matter what society will take from me. I've taken so much from it. But does this mean that everything that happened to Red Alert was society taking them from me?

It doesn't matter. I'll think about it later when I have the time. Even if it is, Red had already let me go. He had already accepted me being in the Hunters. There's nothing else society can take from me, outside of my life, which I had already given.

Red, I'm okay. I'm in good hands. I'll bring the memory and legacy of Red Alert with me, and in turn, I'll carve my own legacy. I won't deny that Red Alert was what it was, since, whether I like it or not, it was everything that you stood for and I want to keep it pristine. I don't want to destroy what you had built, more than Sigma could ever do.

Anyways, I was deemed to be versatile, so the Hunters assigned me in the 9th Special Forces unit, and because of my immunity to the Maverick virus, I have a special responsibility to go on transmission-less missions in virus-thick areas. It sounds tough, but they know I'm the right person for the job. Besides, I won't be alone.

Right now, I need to organise my things, and with it, my new life. So I'll talk to you later.


End file.
